EduBlog.NET v4 – Page 28 – – a Singaporean teacher's storeroom 🖖

September 5, 2015September 9, 2015

TLCSL 2015 paper

in a few days’ time, the 4th International Conference on the Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a Second Language (TLCSL 2015) with SCCL as main organiser will be held.

Screenshot 2015-09-04 TLCSL 2015

以下是我们将在本次大会上宣读的论文，欢迎下载:

《新加坡华文教师基于资讯科技的混成式专业进修方式初探》
(An Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-based blended learning approach to Singapore Chinese Language teachers’ professional development: A preliminary look at a pilot project; by TAN, Yuh Huann; TAN, Yan Ni; CHOW, Fong Yee)

feel free to leave your questions and/or comments after reading the paper. we thank you for your time and interest, 谢谢 😉

//update Sep 9, 2015

click here to find the set of presentation slides (：
请在此下载报告中所用的简报 (：

// end update

to cite:
Tan, Y.H., Tan, Y.N., & Chow, F.Y. (2015). An information and communications technology (ICT)-based blended learning approach to Singapore Chinese Language teachers’ professional development: A preliminary look at a pilot project. Paper presented at the 4th International Conference on the Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a Second Language, Singapore. Retrieved from http://edublog.net/files/papers/150904-tlcsl2015.pdf

陈育焕、陈雁妮、周凤儿. (2015). 新加坡华文教师基于资讯科技的混成式专业进修方式初探. 第四届华文作为第二语言之教与学国际研讨会，新加坡。下载自 http://edublog.net/files/papers/150904-tlcsl2015.pdf

September 2, 2015September 2, 2015

confidence, where does it belong?

was discussing interpretation of data with yanni this morning, and we came upon a quote that touches on 信心 confidence. but where does it belong? a quick search placed it under beliefs, specifically self-beliefs.

and how is confidence related to learning? chanced upon Saga Briggs’ article, where she cited Kansas State U’s Professor Candice Shoemaker:

“Confidence is a measure of one’s belief in one’s own abilities and is considered a psychological trait that is related to, but distinct from, both personality and ability traits,” she says. “An interrelated construct is ‘self-efficacy,’ which refers to a person’s belief in one’s capabilities to learn or perform behaviors. Research shows that self-efficacy influences academic motivation, learning, and achievement. “

Briggs added, “Although confidence and self-efficacy are interrelated, she says, a defining aspect of self-efficacy, which distinguishes it from the more general construct of confidence, is its domain-specific nature.”

so in summary, confidence is a one’s belief in oneself without a specific domain, and self-efficacy treats confidence in the learning domain. and since self-efficacy may affect learner’s motivation, the act of learning, and achievement in learning, it shows how important a learner gains confidence 信心 while s/he learn. yes, a related qn would be how do we build/increase confidence of a learner? this is something important to explore, next (：

confidence photo (acknowledgement: geralt)

August 28, 2015August 28, 2015

design thinking in schools example

chanced upon this article titled “Can Design Thinking Help Schools Find New Solutions to Old Problems?” in fb feed

a few quotes that grabbed my attention:

“In education we do not typically engage our users — our students — to find what is causing them to be disengaged,”

– i believe we do engage our students but to what extent, and how often, especially when our students are many.

“The biggest challenge is mindset, the mindset of your teachers and staff,” … “If they have a traditional mindset, then they’re not going to be willing to learn from the process.” And the process of getting to know stakeholders, thinking outside the box and trying out creative solutions, even if they don’t work, is crucial to success. Learning along the way is just as important as finding a workable solution… but educators haven’t been trained to think like that. They are looking for answers that will make the daily task of teaching students easier.”

– the last sentence “They are looking for answers that will make the daily task of teaching students easier” resonates. as teacher educator, what can we do to shift such a mindset? (:

August 27, 2015June 20, 2016

designing ICT-integrated lessons with TPACK

thanks to colleagues at CPDD, our article written for CL teachers, by CL teachers is now published (:

the Chinese title reads 《基于TPACK的华文资讯科技教学设计思路》. in essence, the short article promotes the idea of considering TPACK when designing ICT-integrated CL lessons. teachers may adopt any starting point in their design, whether it’s content, pedagogy, or technology. suggestions are given in the article so that TPACK, which is essential for the design to facilitate learning in students, is considered. teachers would also be constructing their own TPACK during this design process. the pdf can be downloaded from the local mirror:

陈育焕、张永慧 (2015). 基于TPACK的华文资讯科技教学设计思路。华文老师，59, 32-36.

it is also appropriate for us to express our thanks to Si Hui for her invaluable comments to our draft here. the acknowledgement wordings (本文承蒙林思慧老师（目前为西澳大学博士生）为初稿提出宝贵的批评与建议，谨此特致谢忱。) were removed when the article was published.

and last but not least, here’s the high-res translated TPACK in Chinese 中文/华文 diagram for download, in case any fellow CL teachers would like to use it in their work, there’s no need to recreate the wheel (:

thanks to tpack.org for making the original diagram for free distribution (:

August 25, 2015September 25, 2015

how to compute spot reading for PM2.5 index

it’s common knowledge to go to NEA’s hazeDOTgovDOTsg to obtain the 24-hr and 3-hr average PSI reading (:

but for whatever reason, if you would like to know the past 1-hr reading (aka spot reading) for the PM2.5 index, NEA also provides the data to us. as it is data, you will need to do some quick manual ‘computation’ to turn it into useful information. here’s the steps:

1. visit the Pollutant Concentration page

2. scroll slightly down to find the default 24-hr Sulphur Dioxide readings.

3. click on the dropdown listbox, select 1-hr PM2.5.

4. visit AQI calculator hosted by airnow.gov, and key in the readings from NEA webpage to obtain information about the air quality for the past 1-hr.

5. if you are lazy to go through steps 1-4, you could either visit the AQICN website, or download the Asia Air Quality app in Google Play Store or iOS App Store, OR

6. perform steps 1-3, and remember that any reading above 55µg/m3 is in the Unhealthy range.

Screenshot 2015-08-25 21.40.44

//update 14/9

recently i’ve been posting screenshots to fb timeline to update on AQI spot readings. these are but widgets from the asia air quality app (instructions for iOS can be found on aqicn.org)

2015-09-10 14.57.19

//update 25/9
do note that AQI & NEA’s PSI readings may not be equal. AQI shown above takes a direct computation of PM2.5 figures only. PSI on the other hand is a composite figure; the details on how to compute PSI can be found under NEA’s FAQs, or a direct link from here.

//update end